


A Bunch of Nerds Trying to Cope

by orphan_account



Series: The Other High School AU [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: AU, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, F/F, F/M, High School AU, Humanstuck, M/M, Physical Abuse, Slow Burn, a lot of characters that aren't that relevant, dancestor siblings, more tags/relationships as it progresses potentially, specifically NO SMUT
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-22
Updated: 2016-05-03
Packaged: 2018-06-03 18:46:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6622117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eridan never really expected much out of his high school career. He and his best friend had basically trudged through it together alone until their sophomore year, where friend circles grow and new kids barge into your territory. Unfortunately, one of these new kids is a tall, awkward nerd. And boy does Eridan have a thing for tall, awkward nerds.</p><p>{ alternatively titled: "everyone does a school AU at some point and you can only avoid it for so long". here's mine! guaranteed angst, awkward first dates and dumb kids bein' cute. }</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Introductions

**Author's Note:**

> welcome to my school au! i'll try really hard not to make this too cluttered with too many characters. hopefully this will flesh out a lot more as i write it.

Your name is Eridan Ampora and you are currently a high school sophomore. You consider yourself “in” with the popular crowd, a good dresser, and admittedly a perfectionist. You wake up every day, fix your hair, wear the same colors and attend classes with some of your best friends. Today is basically like any other day, first period came and went pretty quickly and your short friend with a temper talked your ear off about last night’s homework for math.

The hallways of your school are always busy. A sea of color in today’s teenage standards. Thankfully, you attend a school that’s pretty lenient on dress code and it certainly shows in everyone's’ personalities. You and your best friend make your way to the end of the hall, textbook under your arm as you listen to his gripes about his older brother.

“Can you believe that? I was having a PRIVATE conversation for fucks sake!” Your best friend’s name is Karkat. He’s a short kid with a lot of personality. His hair is always a mess and he’s always dressed in black, but it doesn’t seem to make him a dull person at all. You smile at him as he goes off on another rant about how his brother has been listening in on his phone calls to reprimand his language. “A guy can’t even talk in his own goddamn home with Kankri around.”

“I hear ya, Kar. Your brother’s quite a guy.” You humor him as you stuff your math book into your locker, pulling out your notebook for your next class. You don’t envy Karkat at all because of his brother, the only one he lives with. Deep down you know that he cares for the little guy, but he’s really obnoxious at the same time. “Maybe you should soundproof your room!”

“Oh god, if only I could. You have no idea how much pain and suffering that would save me.” Your friend sighs as he closes his own locker besides yours and then leans against it, watching the few people left in the hallway. “You got plans after school? I really don’t want to come home to another shouting fest after last night.”

“Nah, I got the house to myself if you wanna come over.” You close your locker door and hold the notebook under your arm. You watch the other kids in the hall, some you recognize and some you don’t, before the bell rings soon after.

“That would be great actually. I need somewhere quiet to actually do my fucking homework for once.” As loud as Karkat was, he was actually a pretty diligent student. He had just bitched at you for your whole first period about how Kankri kept him from his work, after all. You laugh a bit as the two of you head to your next class a ways down the hall. This period you both had tech, which was unfortunately the last of the classes you shared for the day.

As you both enter the room, your teacher is already writing something on the whiteboard and the other students are seated at the computers around the room. You and Karkat take seats near the back and immediately you notice Karkat open up that weird movie forum he’s always on. You look back at the teacher, watching her finish up the notes on the board before she starts to address the class.

“Okay, class. Today we have a new student, and I hope you will all be nice to him. He’s just transferred here!” You hear Karkat groan beside you as he finally turns his attention to the front of the room.

“I swear, it’s like we’re still in fucking elementary school…” You hear him mutter. You kind of agree. Introducing new kids seemed so juvenile. But, as a teenager, everything seemed pretty juvenile to you.

You watch the new kid walk in kind of awkwardly. His hair is messy, though not as bad as Karkat’s, and he has probably the most obnoxious glasses you have ever seen. Really, red and blue? It’s like he’s an anime character or something.

“This is Sollux. Please be courteous, class!” The teacher waves him off to pick his seat and he hesitates. You sigh and raise your hand up, waving at him.

“You can sit over here with us, Sol!” You call to him from the back of the room. He looks at you like you’ve just rescued him from the edge of a cliff and quickly makes his way over to the both of you. The new kid has just made his way to you both before Karkat stands up suddenly.

“SOLLUX!” Karkat yells, making everyone else in the class snap their heads back to stare. You cover your face with one of your hands and grab Karkat with the other, shoving him back into his seat.

“KK? Wow, uh, I didn’t know you went here.” Sollux mumbles. He sounds like a total nerd.

“You two know each other, huh?” You look between the two, Sollux staring awkwardly at the ground and Karkat’s wide eyes locked on him.  
“Of course I know this douche. He ditched me and went to some private school for YEARS without a single fucking text!” Karkat huffed, crossing his arms as he stares Sollux down. Sollux seems physically hurt by his words, setting his bag down beside you and taking the empty chair to your other side.

“I’m sorry, KK. I, uh, really didn’t know what to say to you…” You notice that he speaks with the tiniest bit of a lisp. He slouches a bit in the chair beside you and you wonder how far back he and your best bud go.

“Oh, I dunno, how about a “Hey, Karkat, I’m leaving you forever so fucking bye” or something like that?” Karkat looks like he was about to say something else, but the teacher audibly shushes in your group’s direction and he grumbles to himself. “Dude, you were gone for years. Why are you back?”

“Let’s just say I’m not exactly a model student, KK.” Sollux sighs as he stares blankly at his black computer screen. Kicked out of private school? What kind of nerd is this kid.

“Well, enough about that, Kar.” You ruffle his hair, which you know he hates, and he flails his hands at you to get away. “I’m Eridan, nice to meet any a Kar’s friends.” You hold out a hand for the tall nerd beside you. He hesitantly shakes your hand and nods, avoiding eye contact with Karkat. “You know, we were actually gonna hang out after school if you wanna join us.”

“Oh, shit, uh…” He looks like he’s thinking way too hard about the consequences of just hanging out after school. “I-I’d like to, but I can’t really leave my brother alone…”

“Dude… Mituna still leaves with you?” Karkat leans around you to whisper to him. But you hear, of course, because he’s right next to you.

“Why don’t you invite your brother, too? My house is pretty fuckin’ empty since my older bro moved out, yanno.” You offer. It really doesn’t bother you to have people over considering your house is so lonely these days, even without Cronus to make it feel awkward as fuck.

Suddenly the bell rings again and it’s time for lunch. The class around you erupts in noise as everyone gets up from their chairs and stuffs their bags with their papers. “I really can’t. Thanks, though.” He looks awfully nervous about this whole conversation, so you decide to drop it. You’ll press Karkat for the details later. “Uh, I don’t really know where the cafeteria is.”

“Oh, please.” Karkat huffs and grabs him by the arm, leading him out with the both of you and down the hallway. “If you think you’re just going to slip away from the grips of my friendship then you are dead wrong, Captor.” You suppose Captor is either his last name or a nickname, but probably the former since Karkat likes to talk like he’s your doting older brother despite his tiny stature. Something about the way Karkat slips so easily into being comfortable around this guy makes it easier for you to accept him into your group. You suppose having a third wouldn’t be that bad, especially since Karkat’s been spending so much time with the band kids lately.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> short chapter. we're gettin' there though! roughing out the backstories little by little.

After finding your lunch table and situating yourself with Karkat and Sollux, the three of you have been discussing each other’s schedules to see who lines up with who. It seems that you and Sollux share all of your classes together besides first period, meaning he only shares second with Karkat. More time for the two of you to get acquainted you suppose.

“So, what’s up with that hair?” The new kid smirks at you. Starting to come out of his shell it seems.

“Excuse me? You mean how amazing it is or how stunning it is?” You scoff, running a hand through the combed back fluff you fuss with every day.

“Oh, Eridan, please…” Karkat groans and slumps his head down onto the table.

“I’ll have you know, purple is the color of royalty, Sol. It’s honorable, sincere, and a color of passion.” You are very proud of the purple puff in your hair, like it’s part of your very being. “Besides, I’m not wearin’ 3D glasses to school.” Karkat’s held back giggle erupts as he covers his mouth to keep his voice down. Sollux rolls his eyes and goes back to eating the sandwich he had brought with him that day.

“Don’t talk to me about fashion, ED.” ED? That’s pretty formal. And pretty cute. Hey now, keep those thoughts in check.

After the three of you were done poking around at your food and getting a better plan thought out for your hang out later, Karkat stands up. “Well, I promised John I would go hang out with him and his friends for part of this lunch. I’ll see you guys later.”

“See ya, Kar.” You call after him as he makes his way across the cafeteria and joins a table with a group of kids you’re not that familiar with. “He’s been hangin’ with these band kids for the past couple weeks lately. At least now I got you here.”

“Huh, never thought KK was a band guy.” Sollux has been eating out of a ziploc bag of cereal for most of the lunch. Kind of an odd choice, but you bring sushi at least once a week so who are you to judge.

“To be honest, I don’t think he is. I think he’s got a thing for the kid with the sunglasses.” You lazily point over at the guy at their table. He’s in a long sleeve shirt with his sunglasses hung on the collar as he talks with the other kids at the table. “He’ll never admit it, but Kar isn’t exactly subtle about his crushes.”

“I, uh… I never knew he liked guys.” You eye this new kid up and down. You wonder if he’s into guys… He’s staring down into his cereal like they hold all the answers to your homework or something.

“Don’t you?”

“What?!” He nearly chokes on the next handful of cereal he was shoving in his mouth, coughing and hitting his chest a few times. “I-I mean, what makes you say that?”

“Dude, you don’t have to be so embarrassed. There’s a reason me an’ Kar hang out without other dudes usually. We’re both pretty gay.” You laugh and he gives you a nervous look. You can see a bit of a blush creeping on him as he shrugs.

“I’m bi.” He looks away from you and chucks his ziploc bag into the trash can against the wall a few feet away. It almost didn’t make it in.

“Welcome to the club, Sol.” You pat him on the shoulder and watch him as he packs the rest of his food away. The way he’s so delicate with his things makes you wonder about him. He seems like a troubled kid with all the awkwardness about him. You make a note in your head to talk to him more and try to get him to open up. “Wanna exchange numbers?”

~~~

“Okay. Spill it, Ampora.” You sigh as Karkat gives you an intimidating glare from one of the beanbags in your room. The two of you had been working through your math homework together after school, making progress decently enough. Though, you’d been distracted the whole time. You had texted Sollux a hello and had yet to receive a reply. It was driving you crazy.

“Spill what? I’m just trying to get this algebra done.”

“Spare me the excuses. Why’ve you been checking your phone every other minute?” Well, there goes the secrecy. He raises an eyebrow at you after erasing something on the notebook in his lap.

“That new kid, your friend Sollux, he’s ignoring me!” A snort escapes you as you lean back in your chair and spin it back and forth slowly. Karkat gives a blunt laugh and goes back to writing.

“Dude, you don’t know what that kid deals with at home. I’ll bet he hasn’t even had a chance to look at his phone.”

“What does that mean?” Your turn to raise eyebrows at your friend. You’re a bit too curious, but anyone would be, right?

“I don’t really know how to explain it without sounding kinda.. Douchey. Basically, Sollux has this older brother that’s kind of a handful.” He sighs and runs a hand through his hair. “Mituna. He’s uh… special.”

“Oh.”

“Yep.”

“I feel pretty stupid now about askin’ him to come over now…” You sigh and look back at your phone to see the notification pop up with a new text. “Oh, he actually got back to me. ‘Hey, sorry about bailing on you guys. I can chill tomorrow.’ Dude, I’m such a dick.”

“Hey, you didn’t know. Sollux isn’t one to get all bothered about that shit anyway.” Karkat rips out a page in his notebook and balls it up, throwing it across your room into the small trash can you keep by the door. “I was surprised he’s staying with him. I should probably tell Kankri about them coming back into town so he can go visit Mituna.”

“Oh, are they friends?” You quickly text back a ‘don’t worry about it! See you tomorrow’ to Sollux and lock your phone before setting it back down on your desk.

“Ohhh boy are they. Kan fuckin’ LOVES Mituna like he’s his own brother. You’d think a real brother would be jealous but I’m actually giddy as hell that he’ll have someone else to hang out with again.” Karkat smiles and continues his notes in his book and you hum in agreement and look out the window. It’s a little cloudy outside and you swear you saw lightning a second ago. “Ah man, it’s gonna fuckin’ storm isn’t it?”

“You can stay over if you want so you don’t have to walk home.” You’re used to letting Karkat stay over and sleep on the couch downstairs. It’s a bit of a weekend ritual at this point since he hates staying more than 24 hours around his nag of a brother. You always come down to wake him up for school or to go out for the day.

“Thanks dude, I’ll call Kan’ about it.” He gives you a thumbs up as he gets up to walk out into the hall and dial his phone. You hear a chirp next to you and see another text pop up on your phone.

‘Did you do the chem homework yet? What the fuck is this about…’ You smile as you retrieve your phone to ask Sollux what he means, excited to have a new friend in your small circle.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> double chapter upload! i didn't want this story to sit out here while i wrote without any nerds bein' friends so bonus chapter for today.

“Dude, you got it bad.” Karkat whispers to you in first period. The class period has been going slow as ever and you’ve barely looked up from your phone. “Thank god your phone’s on silent otherwise we’d be having a rave in here.”

“Mind your own business, Kar. It’s not my fault your friend has no idea what’s inside a cell.” You’ve been excusing the constant texting as homework help, but really that was only about a fourth of the content of your conversations with the new kid. Basically since Karkat went to sleep last night the two of you have been talking about computers, video games, basically anything you can come up with an excuse to ask him about. You send your last text to him about your favorite Pokemon before looking over at him, a smug grin on his face.

“Tryin’ to get in his cells, huh?” He snorts in laughter and you roll your eyes, hearing everyone around you start to pack up as your teacher hands out the homework assignment.

“That doesn’t even make sense.” You shut your textbook and shove the papers you were scribbling on into the front cover as the two of you get up to leave. As the two of you finish putting your stuff in your lockers, you hear someone walking up to you.

“Hey, Karkitty, you wanna come with me and John to the mall after school?” The kid from the band table with sunglasses has come up and punched Karkat lightly on the shoulder, leaning against the locker next to him. “You can come too, Eridan.”

“Strider, I told you not to call me that.” Karkat growls as he shuts his locker door. “Eridan, this is Dave.” In response to the introduction, the blonde kid shoots you a brief wave.

“Thanks for the offer but I actually gotta get work done tonight.” It wasn’t just a lie to get out of hanging around people you didn’t know. You did have chem work to do tonight and you really hate big public places anyway. Avoiding social events is kind of your specialty.

“Just text me when, now get lost.” Karkat shoves him off down the hallway and the kid responds by putting his hands up like he’s guilty of kicking a puppy. He says a goodbye and leaves the two of you to head down the hallway towards tech. You try not to seem too excited for this class, since it’s the first of the few you have with your new friend.

By the time the two of you make it into the classroom most of the kids are already seated, including Sollux who took the spot he sat in yesterday in your corner of the room. You and Karkat head back to him and set your stuff down, scooting into your computer desks. “Hey, Sol.” You try not to seem too eager but you notice that he’s quite busy typing something away on the computer before he turns to the both of you.

“Hey guys. How was math?” He leans back in his chair and fusses with a pen in his hand. You notice his small lisp again and quickly avoid eye contact when you notice him staring at you.

“Ugh, don’t remind me. We spent like four hours combing through two fucking pages of problems last night.” Karkat grumbles on the other side of you, booting his computer up and rubbing his eyes. “I would’ve barely slept if Eridan’s couch wasn’t the comfiest couch I’ve ever fucking laid on.”

“I like soft cushions, okay? Nothin’ wrong with that.” You notice that Sollux looks like he’s about to ask something but his thought is interrupted by your teacher, who’s telling you what today’s assignment is.

After the initial description of the assignment and the class settling back down into everyone’s own conversations, you lean back in your chair and readjust your glasses. This class is so boring. “Hey, Sol, you still able to hang out today? Kar’s ditchin’ me for his new boyfriend.”

“Strider is not my boyfriend.” He states plainly, giving you a glare out of the corner of his eye.

“Heh, yeah I can hang out. Not for too long, though.” His laugh is so cute. His nerdy awkwardness makes him laugh like he’s going to get caught in a library. You catch yourself looking over his shoulder as he types away at the information sheet you’re meant to fill out for the class.

“Why’s that? I don’t have a car so hopefully you don’t live too far.” You’ve only just turned 16, and haven’t had time to bother getting your license. Your permit sits forgotten in the wallet you keep forgetting on your dresser at home.

“I can’t really leave my brother alone for too long…” You notice him tense up a little and you feel like an idiot again. You really hate to make him feel awkward like this.

“Well, I’ll come over to your place then.” You play with the keychain hanging off your belt loop absentmindedly as you watch him type away. You keep a little seahorse charm on you at all times, like a good luck charm.

“I uh.. I don’t know if you’d really wanna do that.” He runs a hand through his hair and stops typing and you feel your chest ache. This kid is going to be the death of you.

“Yo, Sollux.” Karkat interrupts, leaning over you. “I’ll send Kankri over so the two of you can actually chill, alright?” Sollux instantly seems a little relieved and looks over at him, smiling.

“Thanks, man. I’m sure ‘Tuna will flip his shit when he sees him. I hope Kankri’s ready to see his new skateboard collection.” Even his brother sounds cute.

“Well, it’s settled then. I’m comin’ over and maybe you’ll actually get homework done for once.” You tease, he responds by throwing his pen at you and you fumble to catch it before it drops to the floor and he gives you another one of those nervous laughs. You feel yourself smiling the rest of the class as you think about your new plans.

~~~

“‘Tuna? I’m home!” You follow Sollux into his small, one story house. It’s kind of messy out front, with weeds poking out of the grass in some patches. There’s a car in the driveway and a swinging bench on the front porch. It’s cute, and you’re so excited to see more of it. As the two of you enter the living room, you hear some noise from what you assume is the kitchen the next room over.

“SOLLUX!” It’s amazing how much he looks like him. Taller, topped with a wild mess of hair that you can barely see his glasses under. His baggy, dark green sweater still manages to reach his knuckles despite his height. “How… was school?” He seems to tense up a little when he spots you and you wave awkwardly at him.

“Ah, sorry ‘Tuna. This is Eridan, he’s a new friend of mine from school. Is it cool if he hangs out for a bit?” Sollux has already untied his shoes and left them by the door, so you follow his lead and kick yours off beside them. You notice the taller brother has made his way over to you and you can see that he’s really nervous to be around you.

“H-hi, I’m Mituna.” He waves nervously at you and you smile up at him, waving back. “You guys have fun! I’ve been uh, trying to make breakfast.” You notice that he really does look a lot like Sollux, with almost the same kind of cute lisp and awkwardness. But the apple doesn’t fall from the tree, you suppose.

“I’ll help you, okay? ED, my room’s at the end of the hallway. Throw your stuff wherever, I’ll be in there in a minute.” Sollux pulls Mituna back into the kitchen by his wrist and you smile. He’s definitely a good kid, you can tell by the way he’s so quick to help his older brother. You hear dishes moving around in the kitchen as you make your way down the hallway, noticing the posters and pictures hung on the walls.

There are a bunch of skateboarding posters, as well as pictures of the two of them together. One of them in particular is almost heart melting, showing the both of them quite a bit younger. Mituna seems to have shorter hair and is holding Sollux’s hand as the younger of the two wobbles on top of a skateboard. It’s damn near the cutest thing you’ve ever seen. You notice that the room at the end of the hall has a cute sign hung up on it in the shape of a bee with Sollux’s name painted across it. This family is going to kill you.

You open the door and immediately have a new understanding of just how much a nerd Sollux is. He has a double monitor set up at a desk by the door and his bed is sitting across the room. You walk in and set your bag down at the foot of the bed, looking over at the bookshelf sitting against the wall that has a few different action figures and Pokemon things strewn about it. Your interest is caught in particular by the white, shiny dragon figure that sits in a menacing flying pose above all the other knickknacks on the shelf.

You sit on the floor, criss-crossing your legs as you examine the other shelves of the bookshelf. One of them is basically crammed with video games for every current console you’ve heard of. Another is a mess of headphones, ear buds and wires that you have no clue about. You pick up a small figure shaped like a plant in a warp pipe. You know it’s from Mario but you have no idea what this thing in particular is called. Your thoughts are interrupted by the sound of the door opening and a backpack dropping on the floor by the door.

“Hey, sorry about that.” He shuts his door and walks over to sit with you, sitting on his knees beside you. “You wanna play something?”

You put the figure back on the shelf where you found it and blush slightly from how close he’s sitting next to you. You avoid looking at him and scan the stacks of games that stuff the bottom shelf. “Sure, but I’m not really good at anything besides the Sims.”

“How do you even ‘be good’ at the Sims?” He laughs, leaning down to scan through the games himself.

“Hey, my family has a very successful family restaurant running. They’ve managed to start their own chain!” You snort, leaning back on your hands to give him space to pick something.

“Yanno, that’s pretty impressive. All I’ve ever accomplished in that game is burning everything to the ground every time I play.” He pulls out an Xbox game that you’ve only barely heard of, something called Soul Calibur. From what you know, it’s basically a fighting game. “You ever play this?”

“Nah but I’m up for it. Go easy on me.” You smile as he pops the case open and shifts over to boot the Xbox up under his TV sitting on a small stand next to the bookcase. He hands you a wireless controller and turns back to set the disc in place, pushing the bar back in.

“I’ll show you the controls, they’re pretty easy. Just don’t pick a lame character and you’ll be fine.” You scoot in next to him on the floor and smile, listening to him list the buttons and what they do as he selects his character and lets you pick the stage on the next screen.

After a few rounds of playing, you’ve managed to get the hang of it and have actually managed to take a few KO’s on Sollux. After a frustratingly close match, you fall back on the carpet and shove Sollux with your leg as he cheers next to you. You’re laughing with him before you hear a bunch of loud noises out in the living room, something that sounds like really excited yelling.

Sollux shoves himself up off the floor and hands you his controller to hold as he opens his door a bit to listen to what’s going on. Immediately, you know. “KANNY!” You hear Mituna basically shrieking and hear laughter float out from the living room after a few minutes. You get up and follow Sollux down the hallway to see that Karkat’s brother has made his way over.

“Oh, Sollux! I’m so happy to see the both of you, it’s been entirely too long since I was able to visit you.” Kankri and Mituna are sitting on the main couch in the room. You can see how excited Mituna is from his fidgeting and bouncing on the couch, his hands in his lap. “Mituna was just telling me about how you and Karkat met the other day and I am so happy that you’ve easily fit into his and Eridan’s cute little group.”

“Good to see you too, Kankri. Sorry we didn’t call to tell you we were coming back to town, it was kind of a rough move.” You wanted to ask him about it, but you were quickly cut off by Mituna.

“K-Kanny, I missed you… so much! I got uh, new skateboards and stuff!” Mituna is basically suffocating Kankri in a hug and you’re amazed at how the older Vantas is so relaxed and used to it. You can’t help but smile at how happy Sollux’s brother is.

“Ah, I would love to see them! Sollux, don’t you worry about it. I’m just happy to have you both back, it’s been such a lonely few years without your brother around to keep the party alive.” Kankri’s hand ruffles Mituna’s hair gently and he follows the other older brother up off the couch. “You two go have fun, I’ll be here if you need me. Oh, and Eridan, dear.”

“What’s up Kan?” You raise an eyebrow at him.

“I’ll take you back to our house in a couple hours, alright? Karkat told me you walked here, and it’s just too far from your place! I wouldn’t want you to walk with the weather the way it is outside.” You hadn’t even noticed, but as you look at the window you can see the wind picking up and rain splashing in the grass outside. 

“That’s real nice of you, Kan, for real!” You swear you almost saw a frown on Sollux’s face before you feel your hair ruffle under Kankri’s hand as he and Mituna pass you to go down the hallway. You turn back to Sollux, who seems to look a lot less tense with Mituna being looked after.

“You want a drink? We have sodas, or water if you’re not into that.” Sollux starts to make his way to the kitchen and you follow after him.

“Water’s fine! Thanks.” You are in love with this kitchen. There’s an island, as well as a small dining table that sits by a big window on the side. The counters are relatively clean besides a bunch of cereal boxes next to the microwave. You count four different kinds, and figure that Sollux really has a thing for it. The fridge is adorned in cutesy, video game related magnets that hold up pictures and a notepad for groceries. You take a seat at the table as Sollux pulls out a bottled water and a sprite, shutting the fridge after and taking the chair next to you. “Your house is really nice, dude.”

“You think so? It’s small, but I’ve always liked smaller houses…” He pops the soda and takes a sip of it, leaning back in his chair as he holds the can in both his hands. “What about you? What’s yours like?”

“Mine’s two stories but it feels real empty since I’m the only one there. My older brother only comes home on the weekends since he’s in college now.” You open your water bottle and look out the window, watching the water pour outside and create puddles on the sides of the road. “We have a whole room just full of his old clothes. He’s one of those people that just can’t get rid of their stuff, yanno?”

You hear Sollux set his can down and he stretches a bit in his chair. “Yeah, I get what you mean. Sounds a little lonely to me, to have all that room to yourself most of the time.”

“Heh, yeah, that’s why I invite Kar over so often. I’m sure you know about Kankri since the two a you were friends before.” You turn back to look at him and he nods, rolling his eyes behind those weird glasses of his.

“Oh yeah, I know.” He takes another sip of the soda. “Uh, I don’t know if KK… told you about my brother.” He looks at the can a bit nervously and plays with the tab on top.

“He told me just a little about him, I didn’t wanna push for info or anything.” You look away and hate how awkward this is. “I admire that about you, being so close to your brother like that.” You look back at him and notice he’s avoiding looking up at you.

“T-thanks, but it’s just being responsible. ‘Tuna’s an awesome bro, he’s just an awkward nerd like me.” He laughs softly and seems to be thinking about something as he stares down at his soda can. You lift a hand up and put it on his shoulder, making him look up at you.

“Dude, you’re the most awkward nerd I ever met.” You snort and he shoves your hand off playfully. “And we’re still not even.”

“Oh, you’re on, ED.” He shoots up from his chair and you follow him back to his room, the both of you returning to your game and staying pent up in Sollux’s room as the rain pours outside.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow this got really long, oops. we still don't know much about eridan, but it's coming!

Three weeks have passed since Sollux came into your life. Since then, the two of you have gotten extremely close and hang out practically every day. It’s getting closer to the school’s Halloween dance and you’ve been listening to Karkat talk about how stressed he is from all the planning.

Tonight is your once a week gossip night, as is tradition for you and Karkat. You both eat popcorn and watch bad movies as you discuss the week’s gossip around school and what’s been going on. Since you’ve slowly drifted apart, it’s actually one of the few times the two of you get to really talk about each other’s personal lives. Karkat has been spending a lot of time with the band kids, which is how he got wrapped up into helping the party planning since the band hosts it every year.

“Jake actually wanted us to get a smoke machine. For the gym.” Karkat’s munching on his popcorn as the two of you watch Thankskilling for probably the fifth time. “There’s absolutely no way the teachers will let us get away with that.”

“Which one’s Jake again?” You had a hard time keeping up with all of Karkat’s friends ever since he adopted the band circle. It seemed like he was talking about someone new every time he came over, but you were really happy for him that he was branching out.

“Yanno Dave’s brother, Dirk? He’s his boyfriend.” Karkat reaches over to the cardboard box you’d dragged into the room to use as a makeshift table to grab his can of Dr. Pepper. “He’s kind of an idiot.”

“Ohh, right.” You smile and hear your phone buzz in your pocket, taking it out to unlock it and reply to Sollux’s text. “So, how are things with Dave anyway?” You finish the text and leave your phone on the ground before looking over at Karkat and his emerging blush.

“UGH.” Karkat hides his face in his hands and slouches back in his bean bag chair. “It’s like he KNOWS I like him, but he won’t fucking tell me how he feels. I don’t even know what to do any more. I’ve tried giving him hints but he responds with his usual sarcastic flirting.”

“Maybe you should just ask him out, dude.” You laugh a bit and lower the volume on the movie. “Ask him to the dance!”

“Yeah, that’ll go well. He’ll take it as a fucking joke or something, it’s so infuriating.” You can’t help but laugh as your friend’s blush creeps up in his cheeks more. “I’m serious, Eridan. I can’t tell if he’s just oblivious or if he’s fucking with me on purpose.”

“Why don’t you ask John? Aren’t they like best friends?” You’d heard a lot about John and Dave and how the two were basically joined at the hip, much like you and Sollux were nowadays. Though from what you’d heard from Karkat they had been friends since kindergarten. “I’d offer to take you to make him jealous but I’m already goin’ with Sol.”

Karkat sputters on his soda and sets it down before staring at you with wide eyes. “Y-you and Sollux are going together? When did that happen?”

“Oh please, Kar, we’re just goin’ as friends.” You feel the heat sting at your cheeks but you shove more popcorn in your mouth to distract yourself. “Since you’re so busy with your nerd friends he didn’t have anyone to go with.”

“Uh, right, okay.” Karkat gives you a raised eyebrow, like he always does when he knows you’re hiding something. Really, it was pretty obvious though. You were only taking him as friend, but you were totally counting it as a date in your head. “Anyway, John is a moron. He’s a nice kid but holy fuck when he talks it’s like I’m talking to a sheltered animal who’s never stepped a foot outside his house. He calls his dad every time we go somewhere after school to ask permission.”

“Haha, are you serious?” You snort, leaning back in your chair. “Hm, maybe you should just ask Dave anyway and see how it goes. What’s the worst thing he could say to you?”

“I could think of a lot of things he could say to me that would piss me off. I guess you’re right though, I just have to man the fuck up and ask him.” Karkat sighs next to you and leans his head back. “Dude, he gave me a mix CD.”

“Woah, woah, woah Kar. Back it up. You’re worried that this kid isn’t gonna give you the time a day for the dance but he gave you a fuckin’ mix CD? You’re basically dating.” You shove him and he blushes furiously, throwing a piece of popcorn at you.

“Fuck off, man.” He smiles at you and shoves a few more popcorn kernels in his mouth. “Let’s finish this movie so I can go crash on your couch, I’m dying over here.”

You both laugh and joke around with each other as the movie plays and you treasure your time together with Karkat. Even while the two of you have been drifting lately, these nights you hang out remind you why he was such a good friend and stuck with you for so long. The whole time, though, you can’t help but keep checking your phone and responding to Sollux’s texts almost immediately.

You think about him way too often and you know it. The way that kid keeps asking you for homework help every night and then he’ll just ramble on about something else once you’re finished with it. Recently he’s even begun opening up to you more and telling you about his childhood, including his past friendship with Karkat. The two of them were good friends in elementary school before Sollux moved away to attend a private school in another town. Before that, they both were in lunch detention often for playing pranks on other kids in the school and Sollux seemed to really regret not trying to reconnect with Karkat once he left.

He loved asking you about your childhood, which really wasn’t that eventful. You’d told him all about your single dad and your older brother, both of which had left your house. You also told him about how you were extremely lonely growing up and didn’t have a real friend until middle school, which is when you met Karkat. Sharing stories between the two of you about your mutual friend made you laugh at how different he seemed to become as he grew up.

After the movie had finished up the two of you decided to head to bed. Karkat was already snoring on your couch covered in a thin blanket as you climbed back up the stairs with a water bottle in hand. You had already changed into your t shirt and boxers before flopping down onto your bed and looking at the glow-in-the-dark stars that you’d stuck to your ceiling. Karkat had bought them for you for your birthday a couple years ago and they calm you down so easily.

You hear your phone buzz on the nightstand by your bed and you grab it, seeing a new text from Sollux. Night, ED. Thanks for the help earlier, you’re the best. You blush as you smile to yourself and unlock your phone.

Ha, no problem Sol. you’re pretty cool too, yanno.

You lock your phone again and set it on the table, rolling over on your back again to watch the stars glow softly as you drift off to sleep.

~~~

You raise your fist up to Sollux’s door and knock, taking a deep breath just before. You were meeting him to walk with him over to the school for the dance, but the nerves were taking over. You had picked out a relatively nice outfit, with your favorite striped scarf now that the weather was getting colder, and you looked around at the lights decorating his house. You remember when a few days ago you came over to help him and Mituna hang different multicolored lights around and some bats for Halloween, since Mituna is really into decorating.

The air is chilly and you feel goosebumps raise on your arms under your purple jacket. You bury your nose beneath the folds of your scarf and a chill goes by before the door opens in front of you. Mituna is bundled up in a huge gray sweater and he immediately hugs you when he recognizes you. “Eri! Sollux is in his room.” He drags you in by the wrist and closes the door behind the both of you.

“Thanks, ‘Tuna. I’ll go check on him.” You give Mituna a pat on the back before heading down the hallway towards your friend’s room, the familiar sound of music pulsing out of the door in the very back. He’s always listening to something loud enough for it to vibrate the hallways and you think it’s nice. He’s always got some electro you’ve never heard of playing, but it’s never obnoxious. “Sol?” You knock on the door briefly, waiting. You don’t hear a response so you open the door slightly and peek in.

“HEY, GET OUT!” You jump and shut the door again, processing what just happened. Sollux had been laying on his bed, and you’re pretty sure he did not expect someone to come in. He had a blanket over him and was obviously doing something you’re now trying not to think about. You hear the music in his room cut off and he opens the door, face flushed and trying to avoid looking at you. “S-sorry, uh, I didn’t expect you over early.”

“Um, it’s okay, Sol. Do you want me to come back later…?” You’re both flushed in the face and this is about as awkward as it gets. You retreat into your scarf again and shove your hands in your jacket pockets.

“No, no, it’s fine. Just, uh, give me a minute.” He sighs and closes the door again and you quickly retreat to the living room, plopping onto the couch and burying your face in your hands in embarrassment. You look up as Mituna returns from the kitchen with a soda in hand and he raises an eyebrow at you.

“Everything okay? Where’s Sollux?” He takes a quick sip out of the can and scratches at his hair before sitting on the couch with you.

“He’s coming, he just wasn’t ready yet.” You take in a quick breath and try to calm down so your blush isn’t so obvious. You play with the end of your scarf and perk up when you hear the door in the back of the hallway close again.

“Oh, hey ‘Tuna. We’re heading out now, okay? Call me if you need me, I’ll have my phone on.” He grabs a jacket off the hooks by the door and you get up to join him, waving good bye to his older brother as the both of you head out into the cold air. The sun is starting to set and it’s honestly a really beautiful evening, nights like these are the ones that you take a walk around the block and visit Karkat. “Sorry about that.”

“About what?” The two of you walk down the path leading from his house and turn down the sidewalk, side by side as usual.

“Uh, nevermind…” His eyes are fixed on the ground as you walk the same path the two of you take so often to get to school. You so badly want to reach a hand out to hold his, to reassure him that you don’t really care about whatever awkwardness just went down. “So did Karkat manage to ask Dave out?” He looks over at you now, he’s only a few inches taller than you but you still feel like you have to look up to meet his eyes. You give a bit of a laugh and push your hands back in your pockets.

“No, Dave actually asked him.” You remember when Karkat sent you a single, all caps text that read “SCORE!!” and you snickered to yourself. He was such a dork. “He hasn’t shut up about it since then.”

“Heh, that’s great. I’m excited to see him flustered as hell at this thing.” The two of you reach the road across from the school building and you run across after checking for cars. The school building is big for the area and sticks out like a sore thumb. You can see lights and pumpkins decorating the gym that’s attached to the side of it and the two of you walk in that direction. “I hope this isn’t going to be too lame, I really don’t like shit like this.”

“Well if you don’t like it, we can bail. I don’t think I’m gonna fill up on the cookies, anyway, so we should hit Sonic on the way back.” You had been thinking about how to ask Sollux to go to dinner with you basically all day and this kind of just worked in your favor. You don’t mind going back to his place just to play video games all night, either. There wasn’t much that you could do with him that wouldn’t be fun.

“Sounds good to me, I’m already starving. Mituna ate the last of our damn peanut butter this morning.” You smile as the two of you walk up to the door and show your school ID’s to the teacher out front. She lets you in with a smile and you immediately hear the thrumming of the music in the gym.

The lighting is purely decorative lights, ones strung from the ceiling and a few jack-o-lanterns in patches among the bleachers on either side of the room. The music is vague and melodic, mostly pop. You look over at your friend, who’s glasses are catching the lights in their reflection. He looks a little uncomfortable and you grab his arm to lead him towards the back of the room.

You had texted Karkat earlier about meeting up near the back, and like you’d planned you found him, Dave, John and a kid you hadn’t met yet all laughing with drinks in their hands. You and Sollux were waved over and joined into the group easily.

“Hey, glad you guys made it! This is Jake, the kid I was telling you about the other day, Eridan.” Karkat nods over in the kid’s direction and you reach out a hand to him. He takes it quickly and shakes it, then turning his hand over to Sollux. “Jake, this is Eridan and Sollux, my friends.”

“Nice to meet you both! I’ve looked forward to meeting you!” You smile at him and Sollux says a greeting back. You notice that Dave has an arm around Karkat’s shoulders and you nudge him in the side, getting a blush out of him. You laugh a bit when Dave gives Karkat a weird look, only making it worse.

Your small group makes small talk here and there just over the constant hum of the music coming from another corner of the room. You’ve been noticing that Sollux has been rather quiet and while you continue to try to involve him in conversation, he only says a few words in response to everything. You take out your phone and shoot him a text as Karkat and John start an argument over some movie you’ve never seen.

Hey, are you okay? We can leave if you want to, Sol.

You watch Sollux take his phone out to answer you and he looks over at you, looking like he’s about to say something before Dave calls your name.

“Huh?” You look back over at Dave and John, who are both looking at you directly. Karkat has his face in his hands and you raise an eyebrow.

“Eridan, did Karkat really have a cat named Karkitten when he was younger?” Dave seems serious as hell and you can’t help but snort out a laugh and place a hand on Karkat’s shoulder.

“Yep, Kan’ named the kitten after him cus they had the same eyes.” You laugh again as Karkat shoves you a bit, his face covered in a blush.

“Dude, I’m totally calling you that from now on.” Dave gives Karkat a gentle poke in the cheek before the shorter throws his arms up in the arm and grunts in frustration. You smile at them before turning your attention back on Sollux, who’s been staring off into the distance for awhile now. You turn back to the others and nudge Karkat’s arm.

“Hey, we’re gonna head out. We promised Mituna we’d bring him dinner back.” Karkat nods at you and waves you off, the others saying bye as well as you turn Sollux around by the shoulder and guide him out of the gym.

Once you’ve both stepped outside and readjusted to the feeling of not being constantly bombarded with bass, you notice that Sollux is still acting a little nervous. “You okay, dude?”

“I’m really sorry. I’m just… not good at this whole socialization thing. It kinda freaks me out.” He’s quiet as the two of you walk away from the building. It’s dark out now and you feel the wind blowing gently in your hair. “I didn’t want to take you away from everyone.”

“Sol, chill. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable. Let’s go get somethin’ to eat, alright?” You smile up at him and he gives in, smiling back at you. You feel your chest tighten at how relieved he looks and you lead him down the road towards the shopping center. It was only about a ten minute walk and there were a lot of places to choose from. It seemed like every other day you and Karkat would spend an hour or two down here before going home when you were still hanging out a lot.

“Thanks, Eridan. Really.” You feel a blush creep up on you. It’s not often that Sollux doesn’t use those cute, two letter nicknames of his and you can’t remember the last time he actually said your name. You look up at the stars that remind you of your own room and you sigh to yourself.

“Let’s take the food back to your place, Sol.” After the two of you had walked into a local sandwich shop, you had been debating whether or not to eat in. You felt like Sollux would be more comfortable at home rather than stay out any longer, and you seemed to be right when he smiled at you.

“That would be great, I’ve been wanting to finish this season anyway.” You’d both been binge watching The Office on Netflix with each other whenever you came over to hang out with him and it had proved to be one of the best decisions you’d ever made. It was an easy show to flip through quickly and it made it easy to just hang out and relax.

After you’d both received your orders and started heading back towards his house, you were shivering a little in the cold air as the sun was fully set. You’d sent a text to Karkat a few minutes ago asking him how the rest of the dance was since it has just ended. You feel Sollux brush against you gently and it makes you notice just how close the two of you had been while walking. He doesn’t seem to notice, or at least doesn’t care, as he’s still just staring at the ground with a bag in his arms.

As you walk up the path to Sollux’s door, you rush to open the door for your friend and you both hurry inside. On the couch, Mituna is rolled up in a blanket and snoring loudly with his mouth open. The TV is playing some cartoon you remember seeing the last time you were over. You and Sollux quietly sneak back into his room and close the door behind you, setting the food down on his bed. He throws his jacket into the corner of his room and goes to set up Netflix on his PS4 before sitting down on the carpet and leaning back against the bed. You pull your own jacket and scarf off and set them down on the floor beside you as you take the space next to him and bring the bags of food down with you.

As the two of you sit and watch, munching on the bags of chips that came with your meal, you look over at your friend. He’s smiling and laughing with you, which he hardly does outside his own house. You love it when he laughs because he always snorts a bit afterwards. You stiffen up when he suddenly leans against you and you feel your cheeks heat up. He must’ve done it without realizing, because he’s still focused on his TV.

You fight back the urge to just throw your arms around him and hug him, knowing that he’d probably be just the smallest bit freaked out by that. You feel cold in his room and the small bit of heat from his arm against yours is driving you crazy. You reach for your soda and he seems to move away from you, making you frown. He looks over at you and you dart your eyes away to avoid eye contact.

“Hey, are you okay? You’ve been kinda quiet, ED.” He raises an eyebrow at you.

“O-oh, yeah, I’m fine. I’m just kinda cold is all.” You laugh nervously and watch him as he reaches up behind the both of you and pulls a dark green blanket off his bed. He throws it on you before getting under the other side of it himself, bundling up against his bed. You blush furiously as you wrap it around yourself and you feel his arm against yours again. “Thanks, Sol…”

“Dude, can you believe that she’s gone this many seasons without realizing how Jim feels about her? Like she’s actually shocked after that whole mess after casino night.” Sollux is covered up to his neck in the blanket and you laugh a bit. If Karkat could see the two of you right now.

“I’m sure it’ll work out.” You pull the blanket up to your nose and clutch it against yourself, easing into the bed behind the two of you. You feel your eyelids getting heavy at the warmth surrounds you. You can tell you’re starting to zone out, and you think that you feel something over your hand as you start to drift off, head leaning against Sollux’s arm as you fall asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sad chapter... this is completely different from the first time i wrote it, bcus i was making things go too fast imo. hopefully this is better.

“Eridan!” It had been a relatively quiet morning on your walk to school that Monday until you heard someone yell your name from the front of the school. You hurry along that last bit of sidewalk, smiling as you raise a hand to meet your friend.

“Hey, Fef, how’ve you been?” She smiles wide and throws an arm over your shoulder, walking you into the school building. “Done with the volunteer trip already?”

“Yep! It was great, I have sooo many pictures to show you!” Feferi was like your older sister that you never had, in a way. She would always tell you about her latest volunteering adventures in the country. She travels quite a lot, so you don’t see her too often, but when she comes back she’s quick to find you. The two of you have been friends since kindergarten, but she went to a different elementary school in another state. You were happy when she moved back, even if she was still gone a lot.

“Did you take any underwater pictures this time?” Both you and Feferi had a soft side for aquatic life, which is what lead you two to be friends in the first place when she brought her stuffed dolphin to school so many years ago.

“Oh man, did I! I got this one of an OCTOPUS, dude! It’s amazing!” She follows you to your locker and you’re surprised to see Sollux and Karkat both already there. Sollux’s locker isn’t near either of yours, but he still visits the both of you in the mornings. “Karcrab!”

Karkat waves at her and she squeezes him into a hug, making him groan. “Hey, Feferi, long time no see.”

“And who’s this?” She raises an eyebrow at Sollux after letting Karkat go and you give him a pat on the shoulder as he gasps for breath.

“Feferi, this is Sollux. He transferred here recently.” Karkat introduces him and she brings the kid into a hug as well, making him blush in awkward embarrassment.

“Nice to meet you, Sollux! Any friend of Karcrab’s and Eridan’s is a friend of mine!” She lets him go and he says a hello back to her before the bell rings and she scurries off with a wave to all of you.

“I’ll see you guys in second period.” You watch him leave the both of you in the hall and you can tell something’s up. Even behind his glasses you can tell when he’s got that tired look on his face. Karkat nudges you out of your thoughts and towards the math class that both of you share for first period.

After what felt like days (but was really only around 8 hours) the final bell rings and you sigh in relief, shutting your binder and grabbing your bag. You look beside you at Sollux, his desk is already empty. You hadn’t noticed him take any notes at all this period, which is unusual for him. “Hey, Sol, are you feelin’ okay?”

He stands from his desk and slings his bag over his shoulder before answering. “It’s just been a long day. This project’s been a real pain in the ass.” You’d both been working on a science project together about biomes, and it really was a pain in the ass. A lot of pointless bullshit pulled off google and glued to a posterboard was always enough to make anyone gloomy.

“I hear ya. Do you want me to come over and help you out today?” You notice almost immediately that he frowns and avoids your eyes.

“Nah, I got it. Don’t worry, I’ll text you when I finish it.” He sighs and you follow him to the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow, ED.”

“See ya, Sol.” You watch him start his long home on the sidewalk in the opposite direction of you, and you can’t help but wonder what’s up with him. It’s obvious that he’s bothered by something, but prying probably wouldn’t help him. You look up at the sky and notice that dark clouds are starting to roll in, so you start your walk home before you’re caught in the rain.

~~~

Thunder claps in the distance as you watch the rain come down from your window. Your brother’s car sits in the driveway, something that isn’t usually there during the week. Cronus has decided to stay an extra few days before returning to his campus this week, for whatever reason. You’re not quite sure you can just skip a few days in college, but what do you know. He’s been watching TV and playing guitar in the living room basically all day while you kept yourself up stairs. It’s not like you didn’t like Cronus, but he wasn’t really that easy to get along with.

Especially when he’s home for longer periods like this. Because he’s not in his fourth year, he can’t stay in the above age dorms, which means he can’t drink on campus unless he’s at a party. And while he does go to a lot of parties, he seems to really relapse when he comes home for too long. You came home yesterday to him asleep on the floor in the kitchen with a beer can in his hand. It’s hard being the only competent one when you’re only 16.

You can faintly hear his awful singing downstairs, so you open your window just an inch to let the sound of the rain come in louder. You’ve been sitting at your desk and watching the rain come down for at least a half hour now. Papers are everywhere and your biology textbook has a dozen sticky notes in it. Working on this project has been incredibly boring, especially when your friend hasn’t been responding to your texts for a few hours now.

Suddenly you hear a crash down stairs and you sigh, getting out of your chair and shutting your window again before leaving your room to investigate. As you expected, Cronus has left the living room and started messing around in the kitchen. You walk in to see him attempting to sweep up a broken glass before you grab the broom from him. “Cro’, let me get it. Go to bed, you’re a fuckin’ disaster.”

He’s got a hand on the counter for support and looks like he can’t even hear you, his eyes locked on the floor. You sigh and sweep the glass into a pile a foot away before putting the broom back down and shoving your brother into the living room. He stumbles a bit but makes it onto the couch, flopping onto it and stretching himself out. “Thanks, kiddo, I don’t know what I would do without ya.” It took him like a solid minute to say that one sentence.

“Whatever.” You finish cleaning up the mess before you leave again, passing your brother who seems to be asleep on the couch. You climb the stairs and settle back into your chair, running a hand through your hair as you try to remember what you were writing before all this stupid shit went down.

After another hour of flipping through papers and googling, you’ve managed to get a decent write up of the project done. You sigh as you lean back in your chair, your phone still devoid of alerts. You pick it up and check the time, it’s just about 10 and you’re feeling pretty tired. If he doesn’t answer by 10, you’ll just go to bed and ask him about it in class tomorrow.

You’ve pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a baggy t shirt for bed before a knock at your door startles you. You head toward it to open the door but it swings open before you can get to it, your brother storming his way into your room.

“C-Cronus? What’s wrong?” He stumbles towards you and shoves you into your desk, making you wince. “Dude, what the fuck?”

“Are you fucking kidding me, kid? I’m tired of your attitude around here, always giving me this look like you know better than I do.” Your eyes are wide in fear as he steps towards you again and you attempt to flee before he grabs you by the wrist and pulls you back, shoving you into the floor. “You think that I don’t know what you’ve been telling that punk ass friend of yours? Kankri’s been telling me all about your fucking gossip stories.”

Shit. You really didn’t expect Kankri to be the one tattling to your older brother about how much of a joke you think he is. There were a lot of less than nice words that you and Karkat have exchanged about each other’s siblings, and apparently they’ve made their way back to drunken, asshole of a brother looming over you. “C-Cro, listen, it ain’t like that.”

“Oh, it’s not, Eri?” You yelp as he kicks you in the side. “You didn’t tell your best buddy Karkat about how pathetic I am all the time? I’ve never heard of Kan’ bein’ a liar, have you, chief?” He growls above you and you can’t meet his eyes. This happens fairly often, unfortunately. Your brother is an asshole when he’s drunk, and it always ends up like this. With you on the floor, scared to be left in your room at night since there’s no lock on your door.

“Leave me alone, you weren’t even mad earlier! Fuck off!” You yell, kicking out towards his leg and hitting him in the shin. He curses loudly and grabs you by the hair, making you whine in pain. That’s when it happens, for the first time in probably a year. He hits you, hard.

“Fuck this, I’m goin’ home.” You fall to the ground of your room as your brother leaves, slamming the door behind him. Your vision is blurry and the rain slams against your window, but you can hear the faint growl of a car in your driveway after a few minutes. He’s left you, shaking on the floor again. You reach up slowly to touch your eye where he hit you, and you’re relieved to find that nothing is too seriously injured.

After a few minutes of laying on the floor and taking deep breaths, you’ve managed to make your way to the bathroom down the hall. You groan as you look in the mirror, spots from your inevitable bruise already appearing. You grab a couple of tissues and clean up the blood that’s been dripping from your nose before turning the bath water on. Looks like you aren’t going to school tomorrow.

By the time you’re back in your room with a towel around your waist, you’ve fallen into another depressive mood. This always happens when your brother treats you like a stress toy and leaves you alone with your self pity. You sigh and grab your phone after slipping on your t shirt and pants, rolling onto your bed and looking up at your stars again. Tears sting the edge of your eyes and you bite back the sob in your throat as the rain starts to pick up again outside.

Even when you notice that Sollux finally texted you back it doesn’t do much to bring you out of it. You lock your phone again and shove it under your pillow, rolling over to face the wall and surround yourself in your blanket. You yawn against your will and it’s enough to push you over the edge, sending you into choked out cries and quiet sobs until you exhaust yourself enough to fall asleep in your empty house.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i caught up to my prewritten chapters oops...

‘Dude, where are you?’

‘Are you okay?’

‘Sollux has been freaking out because you’re not answering your fucking phone. I’m about to come over there and break your door down.’

You sigh as you check your phone notifications. Both Karkat and Sollux had been texting you for the past several hours, but you’d only just woken up. Since there was no way you could go to school with an ugly bruise on your face you had decided to sleep in. What a mistake that way.

It’s only 2, so there’s another couple hours until school lets out. You quickly send a reply to Karkat telling him that you stayed home from school and then lock your phone again, looking out the window behind your desk. The weather is still gloomy and puddles litter your yard. It’s a good day to mope around and hide yourself in your blanket, you decide.

‘Holy shit, he lives! Where the fuck have you been all day, douchebag? Are you sick or something?’ Karkat is always so loving when he’s worried about you.

‘No. Look, Kar, it was Cronus. He had an episode again, don’t tell anybody, alright?’ You groan as you feel your headache getting worse. Karkat is the only one you tell about your brother and his behaviors, but maybe that’s not such a good idea any more considering Kankri was a leak of information now. ‘I just need to rest, I’ll be back tomorrow.’

‘Oh, shit. Dude, I’m sorry.’ You pull your blanket further around yourself as you sit in your desk chair and look down at all the papers around you. Thankfully your project isn’t due until Friday, otherwise Sollux would be sitting there with half a posterboard. You probably should text him, too, to tell him that you’re okay but your thought is interrupted by another chirp from your phone.

‘ED, do you need anything? KK told me you were sick so if you need me to bring you soup or something let me know, ok?’ What a jerk. A considerate, way too nice to you jerk.

‘Nah, Sol, don’t worry about it. I’ll be back tomorrow.’ After hitting send you lean back in your chair and watch the clouds roll by in the window. It’s going to be a long day.

After retrieving a bottle of water from the fridge, you notice the remains of the broken glass in the trash can. If only you had a lock on your damn door, you could avoid shit like this. You could avoid feeling scared in your own home when your stupid brother was drinking. You know that it’s his fault that he does this to you, but you can’t stop the quiet nagging in the back of your head that asks “what if it really is me?”. You push your glasses back up and make the lonely journey back to your room, blessing yourself for having them lie on your desk before Cronus broke in last night. It wouldn’t have been the first time if he had smashed them, though.

A few minutes of self loathing pass as you sit up in your bed, looking out your window and watching the rain start to come down again softly. You lie down and cling to the stuffed seahorse on your bed like a lifeline, the one that Feferi had given you from one of her recent trips to the coral reefs. It was a cool white and made you forget about how pathetic you are for the last few minutes of consciousness before falling asleep once again.

\---

“I can’t believe you didn’t fucking tell anyone. I would’ve come to help you.” It was really lucky for you that Cronus isn’t exactly a pro fighter and that despite it only being another day since the incident, your bruise wasn’t too visible. You still had a dark patch under your eye but it was hard to see unless someone was sitting next to you, like Karkat is now. Your friend has been worried since you got to school.

“It’s not even that bad, Kar, calm down.” It gets old having people tell you that you look awful, and you’d had enough of it today. Second period had literally just started and the two of you were the first to arrive. Other kids started flowing in here and there, and you catch Sollux’s eye as he enters. You can tell he looks surprised and joins the two of you in the back of the room. “Hey, Sol.”

“...Eridan, what the fuck.” You sigh as you look over at him and he’s staring at you with a stern look. He looks like he’s about to reach out to you before you turn away and rub your eyes under your glasses.

“I’m fine, Sol, really. Just had an accident is all.” You notice Karkat give you a frown before you start to flip through your computer textbook, avoiding Sollux’s gaze.

“You told me you were sick.” 

“Yeah, I was. Now drop it.” You spit back at him, glaring. You really didn’t mean to be such a dick about it, and you could tell that Sollux was shocked when his wide eyes met with yours and he immediately turned away to focus on his computer. You sigh and turn your monitor on as your teacher begins to address the class.

It was a bit of an awkward lunch period, but nice too because Karkat stayed with you instead of joining Dave’s table this time. You know it’s because he’s worried about you, and you know you’re lucky to have a friend like him. He spent practically the entire time telling you about his first date with Dave over the weekend. You had laughed, to his annoyance, when he told you about Dave’s corny as fuck pickup lines during their dinner. You felt a lot better being around your friends, though you certainly noticed that Sollux had stayed distant and quiet the whole time.

By the time your main science class had rolled around you and Sollux had barely exchanged any words. The middle of the period was project time, so you had to be brave and talk to him without being a dick. You started to pull out what you were working on the other night, getting ready to go over your notes. You look over at Sollux next to you, who’s scrolling on his phone and holding his head in his other hand.

“Sol, you wanna go over these with me?” You can practically feel his annoyance as he puts his phone down and leans into the chair in your direction, looking at you. “I just wanted to show you what I got done the other night.”

“How much did you get done?”

“Well, I got all the work about the tundra done and I-”

“What happened?”

“Sol, I really don’t want to talk about this right now, alright? Give me a fuckin’ break here.” You groan, hiding your face in your hands. Your face hurts and you don’t want to break into another crying fit in the middle of the fucking classroom. “Please, just go over these notes with me? We’re almost done with this…”

“Fine. I finished all of my parts yesterday.” He slumps back in his chair and you sigh, handing him your notebook and flipping through the textbook to find the chapters you needed. You really didn’t want to bring Sollux into your pity party. You already felt bad enough that you make Karkat listen to your pathetic life problems and adding Sollux into the mix would just make it worse.

Thankfully, he doesn’t ask you about it again and you both go over what little is left to do with the project. You agree to come over to his place after school to put it all together after he nearly threatens to kidnap you. Supposedly Mituna is actually away with his girlfriend, so at least you won’t have to worry him, too.

\---

It’s been an awkward walk back to your friend’s house. You can tell that he’s been purposefully distant. The air is starting to nip at you and you breathe out into your scarf, making your breath visible. Your hands are cold in your jacket pockets as the breeze floats around you. You can’t bring yourself to talk, you’re too afraid that he’s just going to ask more questions.

“Sit, you’re not avoiding this any more.” You had just reached his porch before he finally spoke, pushing you with him to the swinging bench. You give in and sit on one end, staring down at the ground and feeling the cold bite at your still sore face. He sits next to you and leans back, looking up at the roof of the porch.

“Sol, I really don’t want to talk about this.”

“Do you think I don’t care or something?” You’re stunned by his question, finally looking over at him. He’s still looking up at the ceiling and you tense up. “Do you think I would just let it go and forget about it? Is that really all you think of me?”

“Sollux…”

“Why can’t you tell me?” His eyes are usually so distant, but you can see just how serious he is when he looks at you.

“It’s not your problem. Why would I spill all my bullshit drama on you just to make you depressed? I can deal with my own shit.” Your words came out harsher than you meant them to, and Sollux looks hurt. Fuck. “You don’t get it, okay.”

“So why did you tell KK then?”

“Kar has been my best friend for years. He’s the only one who knows because he’s seen this before.” You’re quieter now, staring down at the ground again. It’s cold out here and you hate this. You hate making Sollux upset and you hate that you’re such an asshole. You don’t want to be having this conversation right now. “I didn’t want to tell him either.”

The silence between you two is deafening. It makes you want to run so you don’t have to deal with it. You can feel the water in your eyes again, only worse in the cold. Your glasses are fogging up and you want to throw them at a wall for it. Everything inside you wants you to run.

“Why are you doing this to me?” You didn’t want to say that out loud. You didn’t want to push off of the bench and start running away, leaving Sollux behind as he calls out your name. You didn’t want to feel your tears run down your cheeks in the freezing wind, stinging your skin as you escape your problems. It was a long run home and you didn’t plan on stopping until you were holed up in your closet, your only safe place.


	7. Chapter 7

Eighteen missed calls. That’s a fuck ton of calls. You sigh as you exit out of your call history and walk into your first class. Karkat is already sitting in his usual spot and immediately raises his eyebrows at you as you sit down.

“Dude. What the ever loving fuck? Where have you been? Sollux called me basically hyperventilating and you were practically missing since school yesterday.” He hisses at you as you flip open your notebook. You can’t bring yourself to meet his glare that you know he’s shooting you.

“I was busy.”

“Too busy to answer any of mine or Sollux’s calls? If I had been home yesterday I would have broken your fucking door down.”

“I had a lot of homework, Kar.” You growl at him, scribbling the next night’s homework pages on your paper as the teacher writes them on the whiteboard at the front of the class. Karkat sighs next to you in annoyance and gives up, the two of you remaining silent for the rest of the period.

Seeing Sollux was something you really wanted to avoid, but it seems like fate is giving you the bird considering he’s in every single one of your classes besides first period. However, when you and Karkat make your way into your second period it seemed that Sollux had already arrived and chosen to sit on the other side of the room with a girl you remembered was named Aradia.

It hurt like hell.

The class period went by so slowly to you as you would glance over at him every few minutes. He would laugh with her and talk to her and you were jealous. But you didn’t have a right to be, after the shit you pulled last night. After running away like a coward as always.

Karkat kept trying to make idle chit chat with you and you appreciated it. Even when you were being difficult like this he would still try and talk to you. He told you about some fighting game he and Dave had played the night before and it made you take your mind off of your other friend for awhile. Until he texted you, anyway.

‘Are you ok?’ It was a simple text but you still felt your heart clench. Even after the way you ran away from him he was still worried about you.

‘Yeah. I’m sorry.’ Thinking of what to say took a while and the bell rung just as you hit send. You and Karkat got up and made your way to the door, leaving Sollux behind with Aradia.

“So, Eridan…” Karkat grabbed a hold of your shirt sleeve and pulled you over to the side of the hallway, “You’re coming over to my party this weekend aren’t you?” Shit. You had forgot that Karkat and Dave were planning a party. Since none of you really celebrated Halloween in the typical sense, Karkat would throw a more ‘adult’ party for your small friend group. Though this year the guest list seemed to have doubled in size.

“Oh, shit, yeah I am. No, Kar, I mean it.” Karkat had rolled his eyes and you gave him a smile back. You really didn’t need to be having any social interaction right now but at least it would take your mind off of Cronus and Sollux. Even if the latter was going.

“Good, I expect you there. And please, Eridan, answer your fucking phone from now on. I’ll see you later.” You nodded and waved to him as he left you to go to your next class.

When you sat down in your usual seat, Sollux immediately passed you a slip of folded paper. You groan in your head as you unfold it.

‘Hey.’ Good job, Sol, solid conversation.

You scribble ‘hey yourself’ onto the note before handing it over to him beside you. You started taking notes in your notebook and had only finished about two lines from off the board before the note hit your desk again.

‘I’m really sorry about yesterday. I didn’t mean to push you, but you’re my best friend, ED.’ He even wrote out his little nickname for you. Best friend? Damn. Karkat has been your best friend since middle school, but you can’t deny that the two of you had been drifting apart lately and becoming closer to your newer friends.

‘It’s okay. I’m sorry, too, Sol. Honestly.’ You hand him back the note and continue your notes. You don’t know what else to say to him and it kills you. The way he immediately rushes to write back rather than finish his sentence on his paper makes you want to hit yourself for being such a dick to him. Telling him about Cronus would probably make your life a hell of a lot easier, but you hated talking about him. You hated making other people worry about you and hated that your brother puts you in this position to begin with. Once again the note is slipped onto your desk.

‘Are we still.. Ok?’ Goddammit. What a loaded question. You want to just forget where you are and hug him at this point for making him feel like this. You want to hold his hand. He probably doesn’t even like you like that. How could he after how much of a prick you’ve been?

‘You’re my best friend, too.’ Sorry, Karkat, you have to share the spotlight. Though you’re sure he won’t mind seeing as how he’s been texting Dave every second of every class you’ve been in together lately. You look over at him as he opens the note and he smiles to himself. It almost breaks your heart in half.

\---

“Hey, Kar, where did you want these?” The night of the party came quickly once all the trouble between you and Sollux settled. You still hadn’t told him about Cronus, but he had seemed to have given up on it. You, Karkat, Dave and John were all at your close friend’s house getting ready for the party. It was starting in only a few minutes and Karkat was rushing around trying to fix things up in his usual bossy way.

“Soda goes in the ice bucket in the living room!” He calls to you as he rushes out of the kitchen and you hear him practically jumping up the stairs. You carry the boxes with you into the living room and start to set the cans in the deep ice bowl that John had finished setting up.

“Man, is Karkat always this uh… Stressed?” You didn’t really know John very well but he seemed nice enough. Almost too nice, even. He always had this dumb smile on his face that was genuine. He had finished arranging snacks on the main table before he came over to help you empty the cans into the ice.

“John, I can tell you with a lot of confidence that Kar is like this at all times.” The both of you laugh and finish filling the ice bucket. About ten minutes go by before the first person arrives, a junior that you don’t know too well named Terezi. She’s close friends with Dave and a few other kids he knows but you’ve never talked to her.

Feferi and Nepeta came over together, a plate of cookies in hand. The kid you met at the dance, Jake, brought someone that looked a lot like Dave and you assumed him to be his brother that John had mentioned before. More people drifted in but you didn’t pay them much attention, wondering where Sollux was.

You didn’t have to wonder much longer, though, because Dave had just opened the door for him and Aradia. She seemed to always be around him lately and it made you irrationally annoyed. You ducked out into the kitchen to avoid him and sipped on the soda you’d brought with you. The kitchen was empty but the sound of the conversations from the living room and hallway carried through it. You were never really a social person and parties made you squirm but Karkat would have had a fit if you didn’t show up.

You looked down at your shoes and sighed, wishing you had the courage to talk to other people. When you were younger you had no problem voicing your opinions or just saying hi to a total stranger. Your brother had really beat that courage out of you, mentally and physically. It seemed to annoy him to no end that you were a social butterfly when you were younger compared to him and he made sure to stop that.

Being so caught up in your thoughts didn’t prepare you for the sudden hand on your shoulder and you jumped a bit, head shooting up to look up at Karkat. He raised an eyebrow at you as you relaxed your shoulders.

“Dude, are you okay? You’re pale as fuck and hiding in my kitchen.” He offered you one of the cookies that Fef and Nepeta had brought but you pushed it back towards him.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just not good at parties, you know that.” You look back down at your soda and lean against the counter. Karkat’s hand leaves your shoulder and he shifts to lean back with you.

“Look, I know shit’s weird between you and Sollux. I don’t know why or how. He saw you bail as soon as he walked in and asked me to check on you.” That asshole.

“Kar, I’m fine. I just needed to breathe for a minute before I had an anxiety attack.” He rolls his eyes and gives you a nudge in the side.

“Come on, Eridan, at least come hang out with me and Dave. I’ll introduce you to his brother. Dude’s pretty fucking weird but at least he’s entertaining.” You smile at him, he really knows how to make you chill. “You don’t even have to talk to Sollux for all I care.”

“Alright, alright.” You give in and follow Karkat out of the kitchen, strictly avoiding eye contact with anyone else in the room as you both join Dave, Jake and Dirk by the couch.

“Hey, Eridan! Glad to see you, lad.” You wave awkwardly at Jake. It was nice that he remembered you from the dance even if the two of you never saw each other since. He reminded you a lot of John with his dorkiness.

“Oh, yeah, Dirk. This is Eridan, Karkat’s buddy. Eridan, this is my bro Dirk.” Dave introduced the both of you so easily and you were envious of his social skills. He knew why Dave was so popular despite being so stoic under those sunglasses.

“Hey, man.” Dirk offers you a hand and you shake it without trying to seem awkward.

“Hello. I can really tell that you’re Dave’s brother…” You give a nervous laugh and Dirk smiles, giving his brother a hair ruffle despite his protests. You smile and refrain from jumping into the conversation any further as Karkat starts to tease Dave about his reactions, leading into a whole debate between the two brothers about sensitivity.

You smiled and laughed with them as they talked but you didn’t really feel like a part of it. You wanted to go home and look at pictures of cats and fish for hours on your phone rather than this. It was nice to be around Karkat and his friends but your anxiety can only be hushed for so long. You excuse yourself and quickly enter the hallway that leads to Karkat’s stairs.

Apparently Sollux had the same thought, because he was already leaning against the wall on his phone. He looks up at you as you notice him and you start to turn away before he speaks up.

“Where are you going?” Damn. You sigh and turn back to him, running a hand through your hair.

“I was just trying to get away for a minute. I don’t do well around a lot of people.”

“Heh, me neither.” He shoves off the wall and takes a seat on the second step of Karkat’s stairs, patting the carpeting next to him. “Want to see this hilarious cat gif I just found?”

You smile and decide to join him, trying to forget about the awkwardness between the both of you. As you sit down he pulls up an app you’ve never heard of and hands you his phone to watch a cat fall asleep and tumble off a bed. You both snicker and you remember why you’re so awkward around him. It’s because you like him. A lot.

“Where’d Aradia go? Didn’t you come with her?” You didn’t remember seeing her in the living room but you had been trying to ignore everyone so it’s possible you just didn’t notice her.

“Oh, yeah, she’s hanging out with Feferi. Honestly, she just drove me here since I don’t have a car.” You felt instantly relieved that they weren’t a “thing”. You leaned back against the stairs next to him and watched him as he played some number-based game on his phone. 

He leaned back against the stairs with you and you could feel the heat creeping into your cheeks when your arms touched. Such little interaction with him made you fluffy inside and it was frankly embarrassing. You missed hanging out with him alone so badly.

“Are you going home after this?” He asks without looking away from his phone.

“Uh, yeah, I didn’t really plan to stay over. I told Kar I’d help clean up but I think he’s having Dave over.” God knows what that would mean for the both of them. It was really obvious that the two were dating, now, even if Karkat tried really hard to keep it under the table. Despite that he’d straight up told you before.

“Do you want to come back to my place? ‘Tuna’s gone for the weekend again.” This time he locks his phone and looks to the side at you, his weirdly colored glasses are so cute on him.

“I-I don’t know, Sol, my brother is supposed to be home this weekend…” It’s true. Cronus would be home tomorrow, and honestly that’s a better reason that you should go over to your friend’s house. Still, you’re hesitant.

Sollux was about to respond before Karkat entered the hallway and immediately hurried over to you both, grabbing both of you by one of your wrists. “Come on, nerds, the music is getting set up! I threw this party for a reason, dammit.”

You both follow Karkat back into the living room, where Dave is setting up speakers connected to his phone. He leaves the two of you by the wall and joins Dave to see how the set up is going and you look at Sollux.

“Do you dance?” You smirk as he almost scoffs at your question, sticking his tongue out in disgust.

“Fuck no, I’m terrible at it.” He shoves his hands in his pockets and watches the others as they begin to pair off and make conversation or move to the music. Apparently Feferi and Nepeta had broken out into full blown dancing and managed to inspire a few of the others to join them where they had cleared out the furniture in the middle of the room. Thankfully Karkat had a decently sized house. “Why, are you asking me to?”

“No, it was just funny trying to imagine you dancing.” You laugh and he rolls his eyes, leaning back against the wall. “I don’t dance either.”

The music created a hazy feeling over the room and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, even Karkat and Dave who remained sitting over by the snack table and talking. Karkat has never been this excited to throw a party, and you can tell he’s been having a great time even if he’s normally such a grouch about big gatherings.

As the party wound down and people started to leave, Sollux decided to stay behind with you and help the others clean up. You know that it’s because he wants you to walk home with him, as he had already told Aradia he had plans like he knew you would say yes anyway. 

After the living room had been cleaned and the others left, you waved bye to Karkat and followed Sollux out the door. Like you had thought, Dave had planned to stay over that night and the two were already climbing the stairs when you shut the door behind you. As you both walked out into the cold air in the dark, Sollux yawned a bit.

“You’re going to stay the night, right?” He looked over at you as the two of you made your way down the sidewalk together.

“Well, yeah, it’s fuckin’ ten at night.” It had got pretty late before you’d left the party. It was pitch black out besides the street lights paving your way along the road. It wasn’t really that far of a walk, about twenty minutes. You yawned yourself before pushing your glasses back up.

“Cool. It’s weird staying in my house alone at night without Mituna snoring from the next room. Like it’s too quiet.”

“Didn’t know you were so lonely, Sol.” You smile at him and he nudges you with his elbow. More idle chatter takes place between you two, with laughs and awkward smiles. You’re so tired and look forward to the pile of blankets you always claim on his floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hopefully i'll have a few more chapters ready to go soon because i'm about to get really busy IRL. also, next chapter may or may not have kissing in it... or crying... who knows!


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